Published 11:33 am, Monday, September 8, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke today on the Senate floor about Senate Democrats’ proposed constitutional amendment restricting the free speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment. Excerpts of his remarks are below.

“We’ve spent the last several weeks back home meeting with our constituents…My constituents did not say, ‘Well, the most important thing you can do is pass a constitutional amendment gutting the First Amendment - the right to free speech.' That didn't come up one time.

“What did come up was their concerns about the economy, about access to health care, about immigration, about the challenges imposed by radical Islamic terrorists, and the Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

“Despite all that, the Majority Leader in his wisdom has decided to bring up this amendment, because he thinks the most urgent order of business is to replace the current First Amendment - which has stood the test of time for all these many years since our country's founding - and replace it with one that empowers incumbent politicians to control who has access to the resources in order to get their message out…it's painfully clear that the Majority Leader's priorities have everything to do with November the 4th.

“It certainly can't be with any hope or even a pipe dream that it would ever become the law of the land - and for the reasons I've stated - it should not.”

Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.